The four-day workweek is quickly becoming a social issue. The four-day workweek means workers need to only work for four days a week, giving them an additional day for their weekend. National Assemblywoman Sim Sang-jung of the Justice Party made a four-day workweek as a presidential election pledge. Working hours in Korea are excessive compared to other developed countries, and the four-day workweek system is a slowly starting in some countries around the world. In October 2021, Spain implemented a four-day workweek, the UK plans to implement a 32-hour workweek within 10 years, and Germany's largest metal labor union (IG Metall) announced a four-day workweek plan in 2020. In addition, discussions on the four-day workweek are actively taking place as new working methods such as telecommuting have emerged due to COVID-19. While some say that productivity and work efficiency improves, voices worrying about work schedules and decreased productivity are also formidable. Let's take a closer look at the opinions of both sides.
The perception that work can only be done by going to the office has changed. With COVID-19, various types of work have begun telecommuting and flexible work schedules. In addition, discussions on the 'four-day workweek' began. It was revealed that the annual working hours of South Korea are the second longest among OECD member countries. As of 2019, the average annual working hours of OECD member countries is 1,726 hours. Germany recorded 1,386 hours, and the United States is 1,538 hours. The Republic of Korea has 1,967 hours, the second-longest working hours after Mexico (2137 hours) among member countries. For this reason, many presidential candidates and lawmakers are currently promising a four-day workweek. The four-day workweek can improve corporate labor productivity, can help to climate change and is a solution for the unemployment problem. Therefore, a four-day workweek should be implemented in Korean society.
First, the four-day workweek can improve corporate labor productivity. Currently, Eduwill, an educational company, was the first to implement the four-day workweek in Korea. Eduwill allows workers to take a day off a week, which is called "Dream Day." In an interview with Hankyoreh on April 24th, worker A, who works for Eduwill, said, "Compared to the past five-day workweek, I think concentration and productivity have increased, and there are no Monday blues because the break period is longer. I enjoy a very healthy life because I can pay attention to my family and myself on my days off.” In fact, Eduwill employees, who are working a four-day workweek, said that since they have to finish the same amount of work in four days, they focus more during working hours. This can naturally increase productivity. In fact, Job Planet conducted a four-day workweek awareness survey of 15 corporate managers and 64 workers who introduced the four-day workweek. According to the manager's response, 47% of the respondents said that employees' satisfaction with the company and employees' productivity improved. Workers are satisfied and show better productivity, meaning that managers are also satisfied. In addition, both corporate managers and workers showed negative reactions (60%) to returning to the five-day workweek. Accordingly, the four-day workweek is put forward as a special incentive for companies in advertisements when hiring. Through this, it can be confirmed that the four-day workweek has a positive effect on both workers and companies.
Second, the four-day workweek is a solution to climate change. The British environmental group ‘Platform London’ said in a 2021 report that if we switch to a fourday workweek, we can reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 127 million tons per year by 2025. If working hours are shortened to a four-day workweek it helps the entire environment. It does this because it affects the amount of electricity used by workers, public transportation, and work power, minimizing the adverse effects of labor on the environment. This prediction was proven to be true in a four-day weekly experiment conducted by Microsoft on 2,300 employees in Japan for five weeks in August 2019. Microsoft introduced a four-day workweek and conducted experiments while maintaining the same salary. Depending on the reduced working hours, meeting times were limited to 30 minutes, and communication was handled remotely rather than face-to-face to increase efficiency. The results showed a 40% year-on-year increase in productivity. In addition, the four-day workweek had a very positive impact on the environment, reducing the number of pages printed by 60% and power consumption by 23%. Microsoft's experiment pushed Spain pay 50 million euros in incentives to companies switching to a four-day workweek and drew attention to the advantages of the four-day workweek.
Third, the four-day workweek can solve the unemployment problem. When COVID-19 spread in 2020, according to microdata from Statics Korea, 324,040 25-39-year-olds had no employment experience. This is the highest this has ever been, 1.5 times higher than the 213,343 people in 2008 during the global financial crisis. Even before the COVID-19 crisis, employment was slow, but after COVID-19, the job market has practically frozen, causing many young people to suffer. This is not limited to Korea. The International Labor Organization announced in its 2020 unemployment report that the number of unemployed people worldwide was 195.5 million, an increase of 2.5 million from last year. The slowdown in economic growth caused by the trade war and COVID-19 has led to an increase in the number of unemployed people worldwide for the first time in a decade. However, the four-day workweek can solve these job problems. In a 2020 report, Autonomy, a British policy research institute, published a study showing that reducing working hours through a four-day workweek could create up to 50 new jobs, which could limit the expected increase in unemployment in the future. It was analyzed that reducing working hours per week to four days a week, that is, 32 hours, would increase jobs by 10%. If the company reduces working hours per person and creates jobs through part time work to fill the missing hours, they can create jobs without wage cuts. Workers in the United Kingdom's public sector are at about 5 million now and it can create up to 500,000 new jobs after implementing a four-day workweek. According to Sky News in the UK, workers in the UK work an average of 42 hours a week, and two-thirds of workers are under stress from overwork. Accordingly, the introduction of the four-day workweek is expected to help workers overcome unemployment and balance their work and life by creating new jobs. Currently, Korea is has a 52-hour workweek. As of 2019, Korea’s OECD hourly labor productivity was $40.5, lower than the OECD average of $54.5, and ranked 30th among 36 countries. The introduction of a four-day workweek is necessary at a time while high working hours are prevalent worldwide, and the unemployment rate is also rising.
Discussion of the four-day workweek is a topic that needs to be discussed for a healthier society. After COVID-19, our work patterns have changed significantly. With the emergence of various types of work, balancing life and work naturally became an important matter for workers. The four-day work week is a policy that improves workers' productivity, minimizes the adverse effects of companies from environmental problems, and helps society by solving unemployment problems. Just as most concerns about the five-day workweek turned out to be an unfounded fear, the fourday workweek will not be much different. After COVID-19, the change to a four-day workweek is essential for the working environment in Korea to become healthier.